Just want to say first, great sight. I love the heavy emphasis on actual evidence and science, seems to cut out a lot of the BS found at bodybuilding.com or in Men's Fitness. Some info on me, I'm a 19 yo college student who's been lifting for about the past 8 months and have made some gains that I'm very happy with. I tend to stick with mostly the same exercises: cable rows, decline bench, preacher curls, etc.

I noticed on an article linked in a thread about wide/close grip curls that the author mentioned quit doing an exercise after 2 to 3 months and change to a new one. Now I've heard this before and it always seemed kind of like an urban myth (I can imagine how when people start a new exercise then get stronger from it due to neuromuscular effeciency they think they gained a bunch of new strength).

Anyway what's the scientific evidence concerning this? One of the pages on the site said there was conflicting evidence. I would think contracting the muscle is contracting the muscle no matter how you do it, and changing up the movement is just going to give you a few weeks of inneficient workouts as your neuromuscular effeciency catches up to your muscle. But that's just an unfounded opinion, so I'm interested in hearing what you guys know. And obviously there's some exercises you should never quit doing, like squats, deadlifts and benchpress, right?

I noticed on an article linked in a thread about wide/close grip curls that the author mentioned quit doing an exercise after 2 to 3 months and change to a new one. Now I've heard this before and it always seemed kind of like an urban myth (I can imagine how when people start a new exercise then get stronger from it due to neuromuscular effeciency they think they gained a bunch of new strength).

I'll have to get back to you sometime tomorrow. Changing routines periodically is something that I've done for several years now, although I can't point to any scientific studies to back that choice up now. It could very well be an urban myth that I've adopted. Until then, perhaps we can agree that the hypothesis that the body's tendency to adapt to specific training makes the need for variety in training is at least plausable.

And obviously there's some exercises you should never quit doing, like squats, deadlifts and benchpress, right?

During late 2004 I temporarily ditched the standard back squat from my routine in favor of the barbell hack squat and sumo (wide) squat. The reason was because I had gotten stale in the squat. When I went back to standard back squats in Spring 2005 I was able to get past a sticking point by 30 lbs within 6 weeks. Currently, I'm using the front squat for my quads. Next, I'm toying with the idea of improving my flexibility so I can do full squats.

As for the bench press, there was a time when I did have to quit doing them, because of tendonitis in the rotary cuff. Even today, I use dumbells, inclines and dips more than flat barbell bench

well you do need to change something every once and a while, especially if you plateu, im with you on not changing exersizes, i change the reps up every 8 weeks or a bit less, ill go from 3 sets of 6 to 3 sets of 12, same exersizes, just much different stresses on the muscle so it has to adapt all over again, during each i keep uping the weight every session

now if your doing fine and are making gains not changing anything at all, keep going by all means, once you get stuck and cant seem to make any gains change SOMETHING, i think thats the one thing everyone will agree on

change exersizes, reps, sets, weight, speed, exersize order, frequency, etc as long as you change something youll have to adapt again

Hi Zeratum. Interesting question. There are obviously several camps here. I know of no spefic studyciting this, but will post a good general study about Adaptation in general. Most general periodized strength programs geared to sports improvement start out with an adaptation phase (does a lot of good things, you learn the movements, build up work capacity, etc, etc) using a wide variety of different moves, concentration on balance in key areas. Then onto a strength phase, where seeral key movements are selected and concentrated on. Then onto a power phase where other key movements focusing on power rather than strength are selected. Now, if you were a powerlifter, concentrating on Sq, BP, DL, obviously you would not drop them, but might use several similar exercises as "assistance". Westside Barell club does something similar in a non-periodized program. You never drop the Sq or BP, but rather you use it them once weekly, using sets of 2's and 3's, focusing on form and speed to bolster the neurologicalaspect, and on another day they rotate through various assistance moves, focusing on maximum load for very low reps.
OK, onto the science. Like I said, nothing specific, but here is a good general paper on adaptation in general by a well respected sports physiologist.http://www.uoregon.edu/%7Eiishp/Berger3.html
Anyway, I did a search oon "Adaptation of skeletal muscle as applied to resistance training" and got a ton of hits. You might want to sift through the lists, as you did bring up an interesting point.
Tim

I agree that you should make changes to your routine based on the results your getting (or lack thereof), not a predetermined time table.

I also agree that changing excercises is just one way you can mix things up. You can also make changes to the volume and/or frequency of your workouts, the rep ranges you use, the order you perform excercises in, etc.

Finally, if you do decide to change excercises, you may want to substitute lifts that closely resemble the movements they're replacing. That way your less likely to backslide while making the transition.